Tiamat on a bike WOTC: not one, not two, not three, but FOUR books on pre-order offer at once!?
- Bigby Presents: Glory of the GIants
- Planescape: Adventures in the multiverse
- Phandelver and below: the shattered obelisk
- The Book of Many Things

All between now and November!?  ... AND you are supposedly ramping up for whatever name will replace the "One D&D" label as it becomes apparent it's just 5.5?  AND a price-hike on top of that as well!?  Steady on there WOTC: I might notice the vacuum hose you're trying to snake into my pocket.

Exactly why, in all the crystal spheres and the astral plane; would I be likely to pre-order ANYTHING sight unseen after books like Spelljammer or Strixhaven!?  Pre-ordering a product sight unseen when you have no possible info as to whether it's any good at the best of times is kind of dumb; the more so after that track record.  I'm supposed to just "have faith" that "oh yeah we'll do a good job THIS time!  TRUST US!"  You had poor quality control bringing one book out at once; never mind four.

Yeah, this is rather extreme of them.

It's turning in to Magic the Gathering. I'm all for content (if it's good) but I like it spread out. MTG has a new set like every other month and it's turned me off from being excited for new products; it's almost impossible since they'll be "oh here's a look at the new set!" and the week before it releases, it starts over with the next set after. It seems WotC/Hasbro is taking the "monetizing D&D" seriously since they're making bank with MTG. 

You don't have to buy everything they release. Some people want more. There was a thread just a few weeks back where people were complaining about the lack of content being released this year.

Quote from CaptainCorvid >>

  AND a price-hike on top of that as well!?  Steady on there WOTC: I might notice the vacuum hose you're trying to snake into my pocket.

Right, because obviously WotC is the only business that's been raising prices; it's not at all like the global economy has been driving prices up on literally everything.

Seriously, if you don't like the company or aren't ready to purchase the products sight unseen, don't buy them, but I really don't understand this moral outrage people invoke that a company should dare to advertise a product and announce the price ahead of time or let people drop orders in early, particularly if physical is an option, since unless the product is limited preorders are an excellent way to cut scalpers off at the knees.

Wizards has been pretty clear about why this happened - there have been problems in the publishing industry since COVID due to paper shortages, and both getting materials and getting printer space has been difficult.  This created delays in production, leading to a bottleneck and stacked end-of-year release.

Is it a bit annoying? Sure. I know I would have rather had something released in the past six months, rather than a stacked set of monthly releases. But I find it pretty hard to ascribe blame to Wizards for a well documented issue harming the entire printing industry. 

Same goes for price increases.  Wizards is actually behind the curve on those—many other large scale publishers started increasing prices back when COVID first caused paper shortages.  Would I rather keep the same price? Of course. But I am also not so naive as to complain about the three year windfall we received as compared to many other paper products.

And, once again, you use a thread as an excuse to complain about how much you dislike Spelljammer and Strixhaven, while conveniently ignoring the other five books released in that same time. Even if we assume arguendo your multi-thread axe against those two books is valid, the other books were all fairly well received, and a 71% success rate is not too bad.  Sure, one shouldn’t preorder if they are on the fence, but for a lot of us, gambling on 71% (or higher) odds is perfectly acceptable.

My main problem with this all is the lack of player-facing content. I love setting books and adventure modules, but those take a lot more time to get value out of than player supplements like Xanathar's and Tasha's (injecting a slew of spells and subclasses into the game, renewing player interest and choice). Something like 2 backgrounds, a feat, and 3 spells just doesn't cut it in my opinion. (For context, I sit on both sides of the DM screen regularly, so when I say I love setting books and modules that's the DM in me speaking).

They're planning to overhaul the system soon, particularly the classes. It's not surprising that they're not investing a ton of time in new subclasses, spells, and backgrounds when they're reworking two of them, and are basically shelving the third as distinct options with discrete features (still low-key disappointed by that). Plus, DM's make up a lot more of the book market than players, so purely from a business perspective it makes sense to give DM facing products more priority.

I'm not overly convinced that having several releases at the same time is necessarily a bad thing. One thing I'd like to see from WotC is a faster release schedule. One of the problems of the many-worlds format of D&D is that while almost every release has someone it appeals to, each one doesn't really appeal to many. I think the last adventure to be released that still had me excited with a month to go to release was back in '21. TSO, Planescape and Bigby's had the potential, but each have significant concerns that have zapped my enthusiasm. We'll have to see what happens with them 

I think the tempo would be great, my concerns are that maybe they just spitting stuff out for cash/to keep the 5e, like Spelljammer. That's not really an issue with tempo, though - Spelljammer was hardly in a crowded timeline.

Quote from Linklite >>

I'm not overly convinced that having several releases at the same time is necessarily a bad thing. One thing I'd like to see from WotC is a faster release schedule. One of the problems of the many-worlds format of D&D is that while almost every release has someone it appeals to, each one doesn't really appeal to many. I think the last adventure to be released that still had me excited with a month to go to release was back in '21. TSO, Planescape and Bigby's had the potential, but each have significant concerns that have zapped my enthusiasm. We'll have to see what happens with them 

I think the tempo would be great, my concerns are that maybe they just spitting stuff out for cash/to keep the 5e, like Spelljammer. That's not really an issue with tempo, though - Spelljammer was hardly in a crowded timeline.

 This is rather me point; in THEORY; I wouldn't have a problem with "more content"; assuming it's actually quality content...  But as any fan of the Star Wars franchise can tell you of late: more "Content (TM)" is in no way a synonym for "good" or "better".  Hence my last line: WOTC had trouble with its content living up to expectations (DM and player alike) when it had very sparse releases.  Now it's got 4 firing off in as many months.  Maybe it's a hold over from the video game world where-in "Pre-order culture" has been pretty toxic and abusive for over a decade and a half now; but the pushing of that is sort of what puts me off still more.  A corporation saying "hey, give us money sight unseen and we'll give you this shiny bonus thingy that costs us functionally nothing!" is the equivalent of someone saying "close your eyes and open your mouth."

I'm not a fan of how pre-orders work (in any industry that I'm aware of). I don't mind them discounting it as a trade-off - you guarantee that you'll buy it and give us assured quick income and we'll give it to you for cheaper. However, it's become about leveraging FOMO - you can only get this additional product if you buy this "sight unseen" (as you put it) and boost our numbers, and if you don't, you can never get this extra product. Even if they chuck it in for free with the preorders then sell it for a reasonable price for others, I'd be more comfortable. At least then it's a choice - risk for a discount, or play it safe for a premium. The only preorder perk I can think of that I approved of was Civ 6 - preorders got Aztecs, but everyone else waited 6 weeks and got them for free. Nobody got screwed for being sensible, but there was a nice reward for helping the company out and helping them recoup their costs a bit quicker. Still not the ideal, but it's the best I've seen for a while.

But my point was the tempo isn't really the issue. It doesn't mean the quality will be good (and a couple of good releases will be better than loads of bad ones, I agree), but it doesn't mean it'll be bad. They could manage to pull all four of these off as quality releases. What concerns me is that what I've heard about three of them. I'm not at the "you guys are blinding yourselves" level I was at prior to Spelljammer, just more of a "I'm reserved in my expectations" level. The concerns all arise from their specific plans that were in place before their release schedule was compressed rather than their tempo, though.

I am okay with the way Wizards does business. Could it be better? Yeah. Is it so bad that I am going to stop buying from them? No.

Unlike most complaints on this forum, my complaint is mainly about the lack of quantity. Quality wise, I am more than satisfied, and I imagine most people are satisfied with the quality too but probably wants the pricier books to be longer, hence Wizards are trying to pump out more books and made P:AITM a bit longer. I am A-okay with S:AIS in terms of quality, I am just not happy with its quantity, i.e. page count is woefully short and there is a lack of Spelljammers and monsters, and there is literally only one new magic item, which is abysmal. Similarly, I am disappointed with P:AITM's page count, which although is longer than S:AIS, it is still freaking shorter than the PHB.

The physical-digital bundle of TBOMT is 192 pages, with the guidebook adding another 80, which totals to 272 pages. If I am being generous, that is technically longer than P:AITM's 256 pages. It is a step in the right direction, but still kind of short. At this point, I rather they just charge me $119.99 and add another 30 pages to the guidebook. I understand that not everyone can afford a $119.99 meal, but I am freaking starving for more portions. I want a five pound steak for dinner, but it feels like I am only getting three pounds of steak with another pound of mash and veggies; I am fine with Wizards substituting out the steak for cheaper food, but I am still hungry with only four pounds of food. I am at the point where I do not care if all five pounds are steak, I just want five pounds of food. If people want a light salad, they can order the digital version for $29.99.

“D&D has never been more popular, and we have really great fans and engagement,” Williams began. “But the brand is really under monetised.”

It is WotC's position that people aren't spending enough on D&D.

Quote from Houligan >>

“D&D has never been more popular, and we have really great fans and engagement,” Williams began. “But the brand is really under monetised.”

It is WotC's position that people aren't spending enough on D&D.

 For about 4/5ths of the fanbase....they are mostly correct. 

Quote from Houligan >>

“D&D has never been more popular, and we have really great fans and engagement,” Williams began. “But the brand is really under monetised.”

It is WotC's position that people aren't spending enough on D&D.

 
Old news, and the current books haven’t done much to alter the trend. Especially with content sharing here.

They can bring out 50 new books in the same week, I'm never preordering anything from WotC ever again.

They announced this ramp-up last year, the production process just takes long enough that it's only hitting the market now. 5e has grown dramatically since release, and while I question some of the people driving decisions these days, they wouldn't be a competent business if they didn't capitalize on the increased demand.

Really it comes down to the quality of the work. If they can produce good content, I'll buy it (or at least one of us in my group will) regardless of how frequently that content comes out.